Since the article provides only the barest minimum of details and invites all kinds of wild speculation, here's my entry for the "What Really Happened" guessing game:

The kid was a cocky douche who made a big showy "I'm number one!" gesture directed at the judges. When they got honked off about it, his dad tried to cover by claiming it was really a humble thank you to God, and therefore protected religious speech. When that didn't fly either, douchey kid got extra douchey and the judges unloaded a big heaping scoop of DQ on the self-fingering little snowflake.

/ahh, sweet uninformed opinion. Are there no questions you cannot answer?